Breakfast withKieno Kammies

Nhleko and the supressed Ipid report

EWN's Barry Bateman on this story: police watchdog head Robert McBride has accused Police Minister Nathi Nhleko of trying to suppress an Independent Investigative Police Directorate (Ipid) report into the Zimbabwean renditions for illegitimate political reasons. This allegation is contained in McBride’s affidavit which he’ll submit to the High Court in Pretoria today as he attempts to interdict the minister from suspending him. Nhleko served the directorate’s head with a notice of his intention to suspend him two days ago for alleged misconduct for his part in the rendition investigation. At the centre of the fight is the purported existence of two reports, one exonerating two Hawks bosses, another implicating them.

Experts call for recapitalisation at Eskom

EWN's Gia Nicolaides on this story: while Eskom maintains there is no crisis and its managing challenges, energy experts suspect the inquiry into the power utility is the direct result of its inability to manage its money. Cash flow problems have been cited as one of the issues that will be looked into when an independent inquiry into the current status of the business begins. Yesterday it was announced that four executives, including CEO Tshediso Matona, had been asked to “step aside” for the duration of the inquiry. Eskom says the poor performance of generation plants, delays in getting power stations online and cash flow issues are some of the key points that will be looked into. Energy expert Chris Yelland says all these issues are part of the reason why an inquiry has been launched: “There are immediate financial issues, its cash flow position, its need for a massive recapitalisation.”

Tributes for UK fantasy novelist, Pratchett

Pic credit: Reuters

Reuters with this story: Terry Pratchett, the British author of the popular Discworld series of fantasy novels, has died of a form of Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 66, his publishing house said on Thursday. Pratchett died at home surrounded by his family with his cat sleeping on his bed, Transworld Publishers said: “In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him,” said Larry Finlay, managing director at Transworld, a division of Penguin Random House. “As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirise this world. He did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention,” he said. The author, who sold tens of millions of books worldwide, was diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), a progressive degenerative condition, in 2007. He had continued to write, completing his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014 before succumbing to the final stages of the disease.

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